


The Check And The Balance Unpaid

by tielan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wonder Woman (2017)
Genre: Community: intoabar, Gen, Power Dynamics (non-sexual)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 13:06:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19426594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: There was something avid about the earnestly pleasant expression on his face that was...repulsive. Some gleam in his eye, some smugness about the set of his mouth. It reminded her of Loki, back when he’d been imprisoned on the helicarrier – the sense that there was something more winding around and about and through all this. One move on a chessboard and the goal was checkmate.





	The Check And The Balance Unpaid

**Author's Note:**

> Maria Hill walks into a bar and meets Ares.

Maria had never much liked Senator Patrick Morgan.

_He supports S.H.I.E.L.D,_ Fury said, after the attack on New York, back when she was still working her way through the mire of what it meant to be breathing air this high up in the political structure – and she didn’t mean on the helicarrier.  _One of our allies._

At the time, she thought that if he was their ally, then God help them all. He prevaricated in the Senate. He played around with his votes. Oh, he blocked some legislation that would have required S.H.I.E.L.D to disclose intel to a Senate Committee, but only by giving away other rights and responsibilities.

And something about him made her skin crawl.

But he’d asked for a meeting, and Maria had considered the options carefully, then replied with a time and a place – midmorning in an Irish pub out by Columbus Circle. It wasn’t frequented by people who moved in the circles of either international intelligence or the halls of Congress, and certainly any of those types that knew of it wouldn’t be there at eleven hundred hours on a Thursday morning.

Of course, he was early.

Well, so was she, although only by ten minutes.

Still, Maria was accustomed to men who wanted to keep her waiting, powerful men who needed to let her know that she was on their time and schedule, not in any way the other way around. Politics wasn’t just the movement of nations and armies, it was the personal power you exerted over those around you – letting them know who was top dog and how you could crush them into nothing.

She knew how to play that game; most of the time, there wasn’t any value in playing it.

Why step onto a hockey rink in snow boots when your opponent had skates – and had, in fact, forbade you from having skates, from learning how to skate, from spending any time on a rink?

There was a job to be done; and Maria did the job.

She hadn’t dealt with Morgan enough to know if he’d do the job or play power games along the way.

The senator was sitting in a booth, looking at his phone, but as the door creaked closed behind her, he stood, an old-fashioned courtesy that seemed at once ridiculously out of place and simultaneously perfectly natural for him.

“Ms. Hill.” He waited until she’d sat down before seating himself. “Have a drink?”

“Thank you, no. What is this meeting about?”

“Are you sure? It’s on my tab. No? Not even a sparkling water?”

“No, thank you.”

“So very polite,” he said, smiling. “And very sure of yourself.”

“Shouldn’t I be?” Maria folded her hands on the table. “I don’t have much time this morning, Senator, so I’d appreciate knowing why you asked to see me. I’m not working in world security anymore, and I don’t have access to the Avengers.”

“Straight to the point,” he said, almost to himself. “Very well. You worked with the Avengers for nearly two years, on and off.”

“Some of them more than others,” she said, “yes.” 

“So you’ve had time to get to know all of them both in and out of their roles as Avengers. Tell me,” he leaned forward, his eyes intent on her face, “Do you trust them to always act in the public interest?”

“I don’t trust anyone to always act in the public interest. Including me.” The faint frown that crossed his face amused her a little, but she pushed down the smile that threatened to show on her face. “I trust them to act reasonably as they see fit.”

“But without any checks or balances on their power.”

Maria didn’t laugh in his face, although she wanted to. “What checks or balances could be brought to bear on them?”

“Penalties – financial or political. Disciplining. Confinement.” Senator Morgan grimaced. “That last to be used only in dire circumstances. A formalisation of the terms under which the Avengers – and other superpowered peoples – are to operate. No use of their powers except in instances involving world security. No use of their powers in a situation that’s contraindicated by the United States government. Staying out of fights which are none of their business...”

“You’re proposing a rulebook for superheroes?”

“That’s not how I’d have put it, but...yes.” The Senator sat back in his chair, his wrist resting on the table as his fingers trailed through a dish of salted nuts. “As much as Nick Fury and I disagreed on many issues, he was right on this one – we need the Avengers. What we don’t need are people with nearly unlimited power who aren’t answerable to anyone or anything apart from themselves or other members of the group.”

Out of his mouth it sounded reasonable enough. Maria knew better than to trust what came out of the mouths of politicians. “Who would you have them answerable to? The American government? Another nation? The United Nations?”

“The World Security Council wasn’t doing such a terrible job.”

“They weren’t doing a particularly good one either.” Maria hadn’t forgotten essentially being invited to take Nick down and assume command of S.H.I.E.L.D. It had been a tempting offer, but she’d already seen that taking power that way would never work long-term. She’d be safe so long as she did the Council’s bidding, but the first time she crossed them...

As it turned out, backstabbing Nick and taking up the leadership of S.H.I.E.L.D would have been a poisoned cup with HYDRA waiting in the wings, anyway.

“That was under the auspices of Alexander Pierce,” he pointed out. “I imagine that another iteration of the security council – perhaps less hawkish, more willing to work with the Avengers – would do a better job now that the dust has settled around the Avengers initiative.”

He was diffident, but Maria could already see where this was going. The World Security Council might reconvene – and would probably do a reasonable job. But they’d need a leader, and the senator was very well-connected, both in the US and outside of it through his years of diplomatic service.

When she didn’t answer, Senator Morgan continued, “There’s already been discussions about how to rein in the Avengers. Tony Stark made no friends when he turned the inquiry about ownership of the Iron Man suit into a publicity fiasco, and few people in Congress trust this ‘retirement’ of his. On the other side of the coin, Captain Rogers presents well, but...there are questions about his...ambitions.”

“His ambitions?”

“We don’t have many WWII vets left. Certainly not ones as photogenic as he is – or as likely to run around being heroic. And we both know a man like Rogers isn’t going to sit on the sidelines if he decides he doesn’t like something.”

If he hadn’t said it so solemnly – and if her control hadn’t been so ingrained – Maria would have laughed in his face. Steve wasn’t inclined to play at politics, his solutions tended to be rather more direct than the rule of law allowed.

Which was part of the problem in the first place.

And, she had to admit, who knew? If Steve lived long enough – through fights and battles and the intricacies of the modern world – maybe he’d decide that the best way to stop bullies was through leading from the top, in the game of politics.

Although she really couldn’t see it right now.

“So you think that making the Avengers answerable to a governmental organisation would inhibit Rogers if he decided to make a bid for Congress?”

“I think that making the Avengers accountable for what they do will at least make them think twice before they wreck another city while saving the world.”

Tempted to point out that there was no time for second thoughts when the world needed saving, Maria decided it wasn’t worth the argument. Bureaucrats and politicians talked and talked and talked, but they were never the ones on the frontline when the decisions had to be made, and most made the high-level decisions without ever considering what they meant. And from what she knew of Senator Morgan, if he thought the Avengers needed someone to babysit them, then he was going to go ahead with that recommendation whatever argument she countered with.

“So why bring me into it? What has this to do with me?”

“You’re one of the few people the Avengers trust. If not all of them, then I’d say most.”

Maria was startled enough to stare at him.

She was accustomed to being passed over – particularly by politicians who saw her willingness to stay out of the limelight as a lack of ambition. And if someone did see her, then it was usually in a work capacity – the underlying assumption being that people as impressive and popular as ‘Earth’s mightiest heroes’ would never want anything to do with someone like her if there wasn’t work involved.

Still, she wanted to be sure what he was offering before she did anything.

“What did you want me to do?”

“You’re the perfect person to advise on an agreement for the Avengers and other enhanced humans in the realm of world security.” His smile quirked at her stare. “You’ve worked with the Avengers back when S.H.I.E.L.D was managing them, and then when they were at Stark Tower. You were at the facility for six months before you left, so you know how they operate, what’s likely to sway them, how far they’re willing to go. And,” he added, “you’re practical. You believe in world security, not just showy superheroes. Who else better to work on this?”

Who indeed?

It was tempting. She’d been knocking around for the last couple of months, putting out fires, hunting up leads to anything small that might become a bigger concern at a later point in time, reforging connections which had been lost after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.

“My sources tell me that you’re no longer working for the Avengers initiative or Stark Industries, but you’re not at leisure either – that means you’re still in the game. Why not bring that to the table – as someone who knows the Avengers and is trusted by them? There aren’t too many people who’d have the instant ear of both Tony Stark and Steve Rogers; and if any kind of accord is to be reached, then we’ll need someone who they can trust to be on their side.”

Maria considered it, considered what she knew of Patrick Morgan, what she knew of the Avengers, what she knew of politics – both American politics and the way the world was heading. And she could already see that it wouldn’t stop at the Avengers.

Other world powers were consolidating their resources to make, find, or collect superpowered people, and they were considerably less blunt about requiring that their ‘heroes’ represented their national interests. Which meant that the Avengers were a political baseball bat that was going to be used to make contact with someone’s intentions sooner or later.

The question was who would be wielding the bat – or seen to be wielding it.

Meanwhile, the senator was watching her.

There was something avid about the earnestly pleasant expression on his face that was...repulsive. Some gleam in his eye, some smugness about the set of his mouth. It reminded her of Loki, back when he’d been imprisoned on the helicarrier – the sense that there was something more winding around and about and through all this. One move on a chessboard and the goal was checkmate.

“That person won’t be me,” she told him, plain and simple. “I appreciate the opportunity, but I have other things on my plate.”

“And you won’t even consider? For the good of the world?”

Maria was a long way from convinced that this was for the good of the world, but she knew better than to say as much to a politician. “I have to think of the good of myself first, Senator. So, no.”

Which involved not getting caught up in a battle between what the Avengers were willing to do and what this new Security Council – or whatever Senator Morgan had in mind – was going to ask them to do or refrain from doing. No, thank you.

He nodded, and for a moment that warning look gleamed in his eye. “You’ll regret this, you know.”

Maria leaned back in her seat and regarded him flatly. “Maybe,” was all she said.


End file.
